


Pass the Mantle

by 20billiondecibels



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: 20 years later, Dadrien, F/F, F/M, Family, Future Fic, Gen, Mominette, New Miraculous Holders, Next Gen, lots of dad jokes so be warned, sibling relationships, the summary is really bad I'm sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-07-27 04:19:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16211258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/20billiondecibels/pseuds/20billiondecibels
Summary: Felina is the newest Black Cat Miraculous Holder. Bad-ass and beautiful, she catches the eye of Emma Agreste, who, desperate to meet her, goes against her parents', Marinette and Adrien, backs.A new, evil, Butterfly holder might just put a wrench in any plans she has to have a normal adolescence.





	1. Spring, Part I

**Author's Note:**

> I actually uploaded this fic before (As 'Repeat our Mistakes'), but I was really unhappy with it so I deleted it almost immediately.(Fair warning, that might happen again. I'm very attached to this fic) This is an edited section of that. 
> 
> *Bises: two kisses (or three if you're in the South) on the cheeks. Standard greeting in France.

Felina ran rapidly across the steady rooftops, her long dark hair flying behind her like a wave. The young woman expertly used her baton to propel her into the distance, throwing her head back and laughing as wind rushed through her hair.

“Help! Please!”

Felina’s advanced hearing caught a cry for help from nearby. She elegantly raced across brown gables to the source, a discreet alleyway where a redheaded woman was helplessly pinned against a filthy street wall by a large, burly, man. The woman’s panicked eyes found Felina and she smiled with relief.

“Let her go” Felina declared, her baton at the ready.

The attacker turned his head to face the masked woman “Who the hell are you?” he asked in a gruff tone.

“You’ll know soon enough” Felina replied.

The man freed the woman from his grasp. The redhead frantically reached for her dis-guarded handbag and ran across the other side of the alley, her breath quick and loud.

Her attacker turned his attention towards the masked super-heroine. As he marched in Felina’s direction he reached into his pocket. Felina glimpsed the rear end of a pistol emerge from the folds of fabric. Before the man was able to pull out his gun, Felina called out “CATACLYSM” and felt heat surge into her right hand with force.

The gun was pointed to her head, its owner glaring at Felina with fierce eyes. She just grinned and gently placed her hand on the weapon, making the firearm crumble into black ash. The man stepped back in confusion. Felina pulled the baton back and swung it onto his head. He dropped to the floor, unconscious.

Felina’s ring beeped in warning.

“Thank you so much!” the redheaded woman exclaimed.

“It’s nothing” Felina smiled. “You should call the police. Get him arrested” She turned to run away.

“Wait! It’s Felina, right?”

Felina looked back.

The redhead pulled out her phone. “Can I have a photo?”

“Why not?” Felina walked back to the woman and posed next to her as the redhead raised up her phone to take a selfie with her and the super-heroine.

                                                                                                    

 

                                                                                                     -/-

Emma Agreste had been staring at the picture for a good 10 minutes. It was the first ever good, clear, photo of Felina. Until now it had just been rumours, blurry snapshots of a black figure on the roofs of Paris, and a few eyewitness accounts of a woman in black leather using Cataclysm, scaring away criminals and calling herself Felina.

But now Emma could see her face clearly. And she was gorgeous with light brown coffee skin and deep olive-green eyes framed by her black mask. On top of her long caramel mane of hair, two black cat ears were perched. Emma could see the end of the iconic Black Cat baton at the edge of the photo. The leather clad woman smiled a small smile, the edge of her lips raised in a smirk.  

Emma looked at the vigilante for a while pondering over Felina’s true identity. What beautiful woman was hidden behind the mask? What did she do when she wasn’t climbing over Paris’ rooftops, saving lives and kicking ass?

“EMMA!” her father’s voice rang out, calling her to the living room.

Emma walked out of her room to the main family room, where at the front door, her Uncle Nino and Aunt Alya were removing their spring coats. Behind them were their two dark-haired daughters, Marion and Heloise. Emma greeted them all with bises* and then heard her mother walk behind her.

“Marinette! You look amazing!” Alya said as she stood up and kissed Emma’s mother. “How’s work treating you?”

“Great! I’m heading to New York tomorrow for a meeting!”

Emma’s mother was almost always working. She had a high-powered job as a fashion designer that took up almost all of her time, meaning that she was either working at her office, in her atelier or away on business trips. As a result, Emma’s Father had always been the primary caregiver in the family. Except when he was incapacitated due to his chronic pain, in which case Emma’s Grandparents handled the burden.

Emma’s father called into the room from outside “Emma, can you tell Hugo to come to the kitchen?”

“I’ll go get him” Marion said as she moved in the direction of Hugo’s bedroom.

Marion was 18, the same age as Hugo. Her and Emma’s older brother had always been best friends. They shared a bond that was closed off to the rest of their families; full of in-jokes, secrets and closed off familiarity.

Emma’s younger brother, Louis, had just turned 14 the week before.

Marion and Heloise were Emma’s cousins. Not by blood, but that was the way she always referred to them. It seemed the easiest way to explain their relationship, not just friends, but closer to family. Since neither of her parents had any siblings, Emma had no real cousins, and no extended family (besides her two maternal grandparents) in France, she enjoyed having Alya and Nino as her aunt and uncle, even if they weren’t technically related.

It was routine for both families to have dinner together at least once a month, as they were that night.

Emma heard Marion laugh from the dining room, and everyone could hear it from the living room, where they were settling with drinks. Emma moved to the kitchen, so that she could overhear their conversation.

“You didn’t say that!” Marion said.

“I did!” Hugo replied.

“I know you. You’d never actually say that to a girl’s face”

“About ten minutes until dinner” Adrien told the teenagers from the kitchen.

Hugo and Marion disappeared to hang out in Hugo’s room.

And that left Emma, the awkward middle sibling. She stood in the archway between the kitchen and the living room as her Father went to greet the guests.

He slowly limped over, half his weight on his cane. Nino smiled and embraced the man gently, taking care not to hurt him. “How’s it going, Adrien?” he asked.

“His knee’s been acting up again, he couldn’t walk this morning.” Marinette said and Nino nodded with sympathy.

That had been the norm for Emma for as long as she could remember. Her Father would go through phases where his pain would be bearable; then he could be bed-ridden for months, unable to walk. He had been relying on his cane more and more as the years dragged on. But he never complained.

“How’s Marion holding up?” he asked.

“Brilliantly! She’s really handling herself. We couldn’t be prouder!” Alya beamed, as did her husband.

Marion had just been accepted into a very prestigious dance academy, starting in September. She was even going to move out into her own apartment, which Hugo (unfortunately, since he had a nice room) wasn’t.

Emma sat down and blocked out the rest of the conversation between the adults. Heloise sat nervously in the corner of the room, quiet as a mouse. Emma got out her phone and examined yet again the photo of Felina.

Felina was the first superhero to appear in almost twenty years. The previous Black Cat Miraculous holder, Chat Noir, had disappeared in the rubble of his and Ladybug’s battle against Hawkmoth, presumed dead. The only survivors of the wreckage had been Ladybug and a badly injured Adrien Agreste. A few years ago, during the twenty-year anniversary of Hawkmoth’s disappearance, the image of Emma’s crippled Father in the Super-heroine's arms, in front of the ruins of the Agreste mansion, had been inescapable.

Queen Bee, along with Paris’ other power couple, Rena Rouge and Carapace, disappeared after the battle that ended Akuma attacks for good.

Ladybug stuck around for a few years, helping the city recover, battling petty crime, before she retired. She then disappeared into civilian life, her real identity heavily guarded and unknown to anyone but her.

Ladybug, and probably Chat Noir, had saved Emma’s Father’s life. Maybe that was why she was so fascinated by this new Miraculous user. Why she had spent hours meretriciously compiling all the information on Felina, every sighting, every article. Why she had been obsessing over every part of this new photo of the super-heroine, analysing each bit of her costume.

Yeah, that was why.

Emma had texted the picture to her best friend, Farah.  

_Emma:_ _I compared her costume to CN. She doesn’t have the bell on her neck_

_Farah: Good, It was stupid_

_Emma: Shes so cool, she pulls it off_

_Farah: I don’t think  even Chat Noir pulled it off_

Emma chuckled.

_Emma It’s a shame u can’t see her lower half in the photo._

All the adults let out a hearty laugh at something Adrien had said.

_Farah: Oh? You’d like to see more…………_

_Emma: Shut up!_

_Emma: I mean that you can’t see the rest of her suit_

_Farah: U think she’s wearing CN’s suit?_

_Emma: I think she made it herself_

_Emma: Or maybe she magically changed it. Who knows_

_Emma: I wish I could meet her._

_Farah: Really? ;)_

Adrien called everyone to dinner.

_Emma: gtg_

Emma went into the dining room and took her usual spot next between her Father and Hugo. Nino brought out a plate of curry onto the table. As he was removing his hands, he knocked over Louis’ glass, sending water flying everywhere.

“It’s ok, Nino. Keep Calm and Curry On!” Adrien said. Everyone groaned, Hugo even booed. The only one who laughed was Emma’s Mother, who rested her head on her husband.

“Good one, Chaton”

Sometimes it was gross how in love Emma’s parents were.


	2. Spring, Part II

After her guests had left, Emma’s mother carefully swept the plates before she charged the dishwasher, her body brimming with exhaustion from her day at work but also satisfaction from a wonderful meal.

Emma aided her mother in clearing the table. Adrien walked over slowly with some glasses in his hands, placing them on the worktop. After that, he took Marinette by the hand and kissed it flamboyantly.   

“Wonderful dinner, My Lady” he said.

Marinette giggled. Emma rolled her eyes. He was being so embarrassing, Emma was glad that nobody else was around to see it.    

Emma’s phone beeped suddenly. The teenage girl brought it out of her pocket and gasped at her notification.

“There’s an Akuma attack!” she exclaimed. “At Gare du Nord!”

Marinette looked back to her husband, whose face was painted with panic, then determination.

“Go” he commanded.

Emma’s Mother rushed up to her atelier.

“What was that?” Emma asked her Father.

“You’ll understand when you’re older” he said.

“That’s always your answer to everything!”

Emma was sure that something suspect was up.

                                                                                           -/-

Felina was out of her depth. She was just a young woman with only a few months experience being a superhero. But now she was preparing to fight against a real, actual Akuma. She crouched on the ceiling of the train station, looking inside at the scene of chaos, trying to decide her next move.

In the dead of night, a gigantic amount of strange black fluid, like oil married to sludge, had slithered into the train station, clogging the rails, passenger cars, and most heinously, trapping bystanders in the slush. It was clearly unnatural, as it raised itself against gravity to sink into the tall walls of the station. Also, it talked. It cried out in a powerful, booming voice that it wanted Ladybug to join its grasp. There was a person trapped the mass of black mud slowly filling the large train station.

“Need a little help?” a voice called out from behind Felina. She turned around to see Ladybug, the real Ladybug, in the flesh.

She wore the same polka-dotted skin-tight suit she had all those years ago, but she had changed. Light wrinkles framed her eyes, and her hair was now in a sensible bob cut. She still had that slender frame, but her muscles had faded.

Felina rose up to her full height.

“I need you to purify the Akuma” she stated.  She had been studying the techniques of the old superheros and knew her own limitations.

“Happy to help” Ladybug said, her voice deeper than in the videos of old.

She walked over to Felina, and cast her eye at the monstrous sight. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. Are you sure that it’s an Akuma?”

“Maybe not, but it demanded to see you. And it’s not……. natural”

Ladybug furrowed her brow, watching over as the fluid claimed another victim into its mass.

“Lucky charm!” she cried out, and a polka-dotted cross-bow was flung into her arms.

“Interesting.” She said.

She turned back to Felina.

“You ready, Partner?”

                                                                                                    -/-

Emma stayed up, waiting for her Mother to arrive, hidden in a hallway, watching her father pace anxiously back and forth. Eventually her Mother turned up, and leapt onto the sofa, her body melting into the soft fabric. She let out a long sigh, basking in the pleasure of finally resting her tried body.

A strange, tennis-ball sized creature burst out of her bag. It was red, that much Emma could tell. It was familiar, but Emma couldn’t place where she had seen it before. It fluttered near to Marinette. “You did great! You saved that poor man!”

“Thanks, Tikki” Marinette groaned as she adjusted her position, moaning with pain.

 “Mari! Are you ok? I was so worried!” Adrien said.

“Quiet, Minou. You’ll wake up the kids” she warned.

“So, how did it go? I saw on the news, it was a man, some factory worker?”

“I managed to save him, de-akumatise the butterfly and restore everything. No one got hurt. Just like old times” Marinette said quietly.  “But this guy was different…….”

“So, someone has found the Butterfly Akuma” Adrien scratched the back of his head “Just what we’d always feared” 

Emma peered, listening with insatiable curiosity.

“We’ll have to talk with Alya and Nino soon. Get a game plan.” Emma’s Mother said through a yawn.

“You should get to sleep. You have an early morning tomorrow” her husband said.

Emma continued to stare at the red creature until she realised what it was. A Kwami! She remembered hearing about this on Miraculous internet forums.

 “Maybe you should postpone your trip?” Adrien said.

“No. It’s too important. I have to be there.”

He sat next to her, and ran his hand on her shoulder, letting her rest her head on her chest.

Emma began to comprehend what she was seeing, and her mind was reeling. Her Mother had a Miraculous. Her phone chimed.

_Farah: I found u a new girlfriend ;)_

Attached was a photo of Ladybug lit by the bright lights of the Gare du Nord. An older Ladybug. A Ladybug who looked exactly like Emma’s Mother.

“I never thought that our children would have deal with this. You know, I honestly believed that we’d made the world better for them” Marinette said.

“We can deal with this new Hawkmoth, ok? It’s not like when we were kids.”

Mariette raised her head up and kissed her husband lightly. Adrien took her hand, and looked her in the eyes.

“Leave the earrings here” he asked.  “Please”   

“I’ll put them back into the safe” she replied.

“Remind me. What’s the combination?”

“It’s easy to remember. It’s the year we got married” Marinette yawned again. “I’m going to go to bed” she rose up and walked to where Emma was hiding. Emma rushed back to her room a silently as she could, avoiding her Mother’s gaze.

Emma googled photos of Ladybug. She clicked on an older photo, of when Ladybug would have 20 or so. She then opened the family online cloud, searching through folders of baby photos until she found one of her parent’s wedding. She found one of both her Mother and Father, elegantly dressed and smiling from ear to ear. She noted the year: 1997, and then focused in on her Mother’s young face. She then placed the wedding photo and the picture of Ladybug next to each other. 

She leaned back on her chair.

“Holy Shit”

                                                                                               -/-

Marinette went away to New York the next day, so when the rest of her family had left the house for the evening, Emma ascended alone into the attic that housed all of her Mother’s fabrics, mannequins, sewing machines and other equipment. The blonde girl rummaged through piles of textiles and sketches, searching for the safe.

She was just going to borrow her Miraculous, for a bit. Just to meet Felina, and maybe try out some superpowers.  Marinette would barely realise it was gone.

Emma found a small safe underneath her Mother’s drawing board, and put in the combination. Inside, there was only one tiny black jewellery box, engraved with red shapes. Emma opened it.

A flash of red light temporarily blinded her. A dimmer blaze of red, the size of an apple, rose up and manifested itself into two large blue eyes that were attached to a small red body.

“Hello Emma!” the creature cried out in a high-pitched voice. “I'm Tikki!” the sprite said cheerfully. “We met before, but you were very young”

Emma looked into the box from where the Kwami had emerged. It contained a pair of black earrings.

 “So, if I put these earrings on, I could transform into Ladybug?”

“Yes!”

“Can I do it now?”

                                                                                                      

                                                                                                              -/-

Felina looked over the evening horizon, over the rooftops of the city she cared for. It had been a pretty calm patrol, and she still had the energy to do it all again.

A sudden burst of red flew past her, accompanied by a loud cry and the sound of metal clanging, then pigeons fleeing the area a few blocks south. Felina used her baton to hop over.

On a flat rooftop, a young girl dressed in red with black polka dots was tangled in a mess of black wire, that attached her to a chimney, causing her to hover a few metres off the ground. Her blonde hair flowed below her as she struggled to be free of her constraints.   

“Need a little help?” Felina asked.

The girl moved her head up, revealing a round, masked face that was covered in light freckles. Her blue eyes lit up with recognition once they met Felina’s.

“I’m fine, I can get out of it” she kicked and shoved her limbs in an attempt to loosen the rope. She groaned in frustration.

Felina signed and pulled one of the strands gently, allowing the girl’s body to descend slowly. Once she was at Felina’s level, the superheroine held her in her arms for a few seconds, helping her to reach the floor softly.

The girl redressed herself. She was wearing a suit almost identical to Ladybug’s. She just lacked the little pouch on her hip. Felina recognised in her face the magical glamor that obscured the identities of Miraculous users. She was definitely using the real Ladybug Miraculouses.

And she was kind of cute.

The girl managed to unravel the sturdy wire and contain it all into the yoyo that she held in her hand.

“Big Ladybug fan?” Felina asked.

“I am Ladybug!” the girl moved her hands to her hips in a traditional superhero pose, legs apart.

“Really?” Felina crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows.    

“Well, no. I’m a different Ladybug!”

“What happened to the old Ladybug?”

The girl blinked a few times. “She went on holiday”

Felina wasn’t sure she believed her. But she could believe that the old Ladybug had decided to pass on her Miraculous.  Also, there was something about the girl that was familiar, that made Felina trust her.

 “What’s your name?” she asked.

The girl paused. “Um………. Coccinelle” she said.

Not the most original name, Felina thought.

“Nice to meet you, Coccinelle. What happened to you back there?”

“I was trying to use the yoyo to hook onto that building then the string pulled me back really quickly and ……. I got stuck”

“First time, huh?”

Coccinelle nodded. She couldn’t have been much older than Felina, her blonde hair shoulder length and now tangled in a mess.

“When I first started, I had trouble getting used to my baton. But every day, I practiced. I just found a place where I could repeat jumping with it. If you do it enough, it becomes a muscle memory. And then you can do it by instinct” Felina said.

Coccinelle looked around her, examining the grey rooftops lit by street lamps. She focused on one area, then moved back, pulling back and straightening her arm. She cast the yoyo, raising her arms in an arch. The yoyo hit a wall, then bounced off just as fast, hitting Coccinelle square in the jaw.

Felina contained a chuckle as Coccinelle cried out in pain.

“Here, I'll show you” Felina said.

She grasped the blonde girl’s arm, standing close to her.

“It's all in the wrist” Felina demonstrated, flicking her hand forward.

Coccinelle repeated the action and her yoyo’s string reached and latched onto a satellite antenna higher up. Coccinelle gasped. The wire pulled her by her hand rapidly, thrusting her body through the air until she fell down by the antenna with a loud thump.

Felina used her baton to easily jump up where Coccinelle had landed.

“Are you ok?” she asked her. Coccinelle was slumped over, laying in the floor.

“It doesn't hurt as much as it should” she groaned.

“Your suit absorbs damage. Let’s you survive more than you would without it”

Felina walked over to her and extended her hand out. Coccinelle took it and let Felina pull her up.

Felina felt a high-pitched sound ring through her ears. She perked up, trying to find the source of the high frequency noise.

“What are you doing?” Coccinelle asked.

“There's an alarm.” Felina glanced back at Coccinelle and raised her eyebrow.

“You wanna stop a robbery?” she asked.

                                                                        

 

 

                                                                                      -/-

Emma followed Felina as the superherione effortlessly leaped across rooftops, assured of the route she needed to take.

Just being so close to Felina was exhilarating, never mind the increased agility and strength that the Ladybug Miraculouses had gifted her. Felina was amazing, more amazing that Emma could ever have imaged.  The way she had held Emma in her arms and the grace with which she moved was intoxicating.

It was official, she definitely had a massive crush on Felina.

Felina landed in the pavement outside of a high-end jewellery shop, that was currently blaring out a monstrous ringing noise. Emma followed, barely managing to land on both feet.

“When we get in I need you to cover any exits. Stop the perps from getting away. Got it?” Felina said.

Emma nodded, her stomach knotting with butterflies. This was not what she was expecting when she had cried out “Tikki, Spots On!”. She thought that she could just run around the city, experimenting with new superpowers. Meeting Felina was an unintended plus.  

Felina marched over to the storefront, twirling her baton like a majorette. Emma, no, ‘Coccinelle’ was her name, she reminded herself, trailed behind the brunette.

When they reached the glass door Felina moved her head half towards Coccinelle.

“Relax, you've got this” she said. She opened the busted door confidently.

The volume of the alarm rose when the pair of them entered. At one of the counters, two men, masked and wearing all black, were stuffing rows of pearls and gold chains into their bags.

Felina motioned her head silently to a door at the back of the shop. Coccinelle nodded, walked away from Felina, and the two men, making her way to the back door, her heart racing.

One of the men looked up, spotted Felina and tapped his accomplice on the arm. The man responded with shock, and frantically filled his bag even more.

While the two robbers were occupied, Coccinelle snuck in the shadows until she was at the back door, from where she observed Felina at work.

“Looking for something?” She asked.

The men scrambled to move the rest of their loot, then raced away from the counter.

“Not so fast” Felina said coolly. She expanded her baton and used it to propel herself in front of the two criminals.

One of the men raised a closed fist to her, attempting to strike. But Felina was fast. She blocked the attack, grabbing his fist and moving the fiend into a chokehold.

The other man dashed towards when Coccinelle was, jewels falling out of his bag and rolling in the floor. He raised his head, then gasped once he saw Coccinelle. She stood still, unsure of what to do.

“Hit him!” Felina called out as she struggled to keep the other man in her grasp.

Coccinelle kicked the man in the stomach as hard as she could. The kick was more powerful than she anticipated. The man curled up, holding his stomach in pain.

She stood still. Police sirens increased in volume from the outside.

The man that she had just kicked rose back up, and charged at her. Instinctively, Coccinelle moved out of his way, letting the man run through the back door.

“Don't just stand there! Get him!” Felina said through gritted teeth.

Coccinelle saw a glimpse of the figure rush outside. She followed him into an alleyway.

As the man was racing away, Coccinelle threw her yoyo the way Felina taught her, latching onto the man’s legs, tying his feet together. The man fell down, and attempted to crawl away.  Coccinelle desperately tried to keep her grip in her end of the yoyo as the strong wire fought against her.

Loud footsteps came from the exit. Two gendarmes* appeared.

They ran over and were able to handcuff the man.

Once the man was in police custody Coccinelle walked out through the jewellery shop to the outside façade, where a police car was parked and Felina was talking to an officer. She smiled when she saw Coccinelle.

“Did you get him?” she asked.

Coccinelle nodded.

“We make a good team” Felina said.

She extended her fist out. Coccinelle stood still.

“Come on, fist bump?”

Coccinelle shyly reciprocated the celebratory gesture.

A tall female reporter ran towards them, shouting Felina’s name loudly.

“Felina! Who’s this?” she asked.

“This is my new partner, Coccinelle” Felina said proudly.

She smiled at Coccinelle, who felt her heart beat louder than she thought it ever could.

The reporter raised up her camera towards the duo. Felina placed her hand on Coccinelle’s shoulder. Emma gasped quietly at the small touch. The camera flashed.

“I have to get home. See you around, Coccinelle?”

Felina waved and departed.

When Coccinelle finally managed to get home, eventually abandoning rooftop hopping and just taking the metro, she gleefully said to Tikki:

“That was amazing!”

**Author's Note:**

> I have the next 4k words of this fic already written, and if you can't tell, this going to be a slow build-up until we have the new Miraculous team. Also, if you're wondering who Felina is, or what happened to Adrien, it will be revealed later. (Trust me, I have an idea of where I'm going with all this)
> 
> Updates will come completely depending on how motivated I am and on other personal obligations. If you really, really, want updates, then comments, kudos etc. are super encouraging. 
> 
> -Billi


End file.
